White Sox Recently Extended Kenny Williams, Rick Hahn

Earlier this summer, the White Sox extended the contracts of executive vice president Kenny Williams and general manager Rick Hahn, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports in the course of a lengthy interview with long-time club owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Precise terms are not known, but both have received new long-term deals, per the report. Reinsdorf also discussed the organization’s current rebuilding efforts in a piece that’s well worth a full read.

Both executives are longstanding members of the organization. Williams played with the White Sox, joined the club as a scout in 1992, and has steadily climbed the ranks ever since. He took the GM seat in 2000, helping to engineer the club’s 2005 World Series-winning roster, and left it with a move further upstairs twelve years later.

Hahn took the baton from Williams as GM in 2012 and has held that role since. He originally joined the South Siders when Williams took over the baseball operations, moving to the organization after a stint as a sports agent. He quickly rose to become the assistant GM and was long seen as an eventual successor.

In recent years, that pair of top baseball decisionmakers oversaw the construction and then dismantling of a strong core of young talent. High-end, controllable players such as Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Adam Eaton seemingly gave the club a chance at a nice window of contention, and it spent big on complementary veterans (through trade and free agency) to put a winner on the field. Those efforts failed to come to fruition, though, and the Sox haven’t posted a .500 record since 2012.

With evident needs all over the roster after a disappointing 2016 campaign, Reinsdorf authorized a dedicated sell-off. Sale and Eaton were moved in successive Winter Meetings blockbusters. Quintana went this summer to the cross-town Cubs. And ensuing deals saw David Robertson, Todd Frazier, Melky Cabrera, and Tommy Kahnle swapped out for young talent.

While Reinsdorf says it was “very tough” to go through that process, particularly given that he’s 81 years old, he tells Nightengale that he determined he has “an obligation to do what’s right for the fans.” It was particularly difficult to boost the Cubs by sending them Quintana, he noted, though again he cited the need to focus on his own organization’s needs. “I know the White Sox fans will be upset if Quintana pitches them to the World Series,” says Reinsdorf, “but I also know we got their two best prospects.’’

Since embarking upon this new path, the White Sox have compiled one of the game’s top farm systems. In addition to the numerous youngsters added via trade, Chicago inked highly rated Cuban prospect Luis Robert and is on course to score a top draft choice next year. The club’s most intriguing new assets litter top-100 prospect ranking lists, and several — including Yoan Moncada and Reynaldo Lopez — have already earned promotions to the majors.

Turning that aggregation of young talent into a successful MLB roster, of course, will still require a concerted effort. The Sox currently own an ugly 45-71 record and will face many challenges in player development and, eventually, further roster maneuvering designed to supplement the hoped-for new core. More immediately, the team’s top decisionmakers will need to consider trades involving players such as Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia, each of whom has played well this year and can be controlled for two more seasons via arbitration.

There’s mostly a blank slate on future salary commitments, though, which will surely aid the undertaking. After pushing payroll to north of $130MM by the end of 2016, the front office has pared things back to the point that the recent extension of shortstop Tim Anderson stands as the only significant remaining long-term commitment.

Comments

His recent interview makes it appear it wasn’t interesting at all. Jerry has taken a backseat since last July from what it appears is being said. Sure bulls fans wish he will do the same for that franchise as well

Again, a little outside the box, but a classy move by the Ricketts family and the Theo regime. Of all those involved in the last six years or so nobody was as professionally sidetracked as Renteria at the time. I’m not sure that Sveum was that big a part of the building process but again classy move by the Ricketts family to understand where this whole thing may have started.

What do you mean multiple CY young candidates Sale and Q never won one. Also how can you have all that talent and still Suck? Because these clowns hire all their buddies. Harold Barnes a first base coach, BuddyBell running the minors, Robin Clueless Ventura a 5 year manager 5 years . And Sale hated him and Kenny Wake up!

I think the recent blueprints of the Cubs and Astros dealing assets of varying values for young, controllable talent is the popular one to follow these days. To this point they have accepted that the path of signing the Melkys and Fraziers of the world to try to patch and compete wasn’t working. There is no surity that the prospect thing will work for the White Sox, and there is no history that the ownership will pony up some $400 million for free agents at the right time, but to say they “must not want to win” is a little misguided. I think they have a plan and are trying to implement it.

What a mess the sox have now. Having extended Williams would’ve been like extending Ventura! He is the final DOOM. He has hired his own yes-man in critical positions of the organization. Those people have proved they can not draft nor develop talent. The outstanding rookies they acquired in trades, will not be developed by his staff. Examples are Moncada, Anderson, and Saladino. Williams was lucky in 2005 and has worn out his welcome for the last 6 years.

Tyler Saladino was a 7th round pick. The fact that he even made it to the MLB is a plus for the White Sox organization. If you’re expecting anything more than mediocrity from him, you’re expecting too much.

Tim Anderson is still very young and raw. He didn’t even play baseball until his junior year in high school. He still has a ridiculous amount of room to grow. Again, a raw talent like him even making it to the MLB is a plus.

Moncada hasn’t even been in the organization for a full year. If you already want to write him off (extremely dumb), blame it on Boston. They’re the ones that did most of the developing until this point. And on that note, if you already want to write him off based on an extremely small sample size, you have to be willing to give them a ton of credit for developing Delmonico. He has looked ridiculously good in basically the same sample size as Moncada. Or you can just be smart about it and realize that they are both young and will have their ups and downs before making your final judgments.

I’m not going to try to claim they are great at developing position players, but you picked horrible examples. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the fact that they’ve made a ton of changes in the last 2 years to their scouting and development teams.

Keep on hating though. I’m sure it makes you feel better about yourself. Better yet, go watch some games on the North side. I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself more up there, and nobody down here will miss you.

1. I wouldn’t really call my response “sticking up for the organization.” All I did was point out that the above poster made terrible choices in an attempt to prove his point. Not to mention that all he ever does is bash the White Sox for every single move they make.

2. IF I did want to “stick up for this organization,” it’d be because they finally picked a lane and are trying to execute a plan rather than throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks. They are in a great spot right now, especially when you compare to where they were the last handful of years.

3. Why should he sell? Just because you want him to? You’re acting like he’s a pile of trash owner like Loria. Despite what you may think about him, he’s far from that.

He’s not much better than Loris, have you forgotten how he held the State hostage got a brand new stadium didn’t cost him a penny and it’s rent free. Sorry can’t put a pathetic team on the Field after getting all the brakes.

You said he can’t put a pathetic team on the field after getting so many breaks. I pointed out that since getting all the breaks, he put a World Series team on the field. In other words, your statement is false. Choose your words more carefully and construct a better argument.

By far worst owner Sox ever had breaks my heart to hear he’s not selling the team. Longest owner with 1 championship the rebuild will be a train wreck and Kenny keeps his job. Also what an assinine statement that Robin could of comeback this guy is a Loser and hasent got a clue!

Pretty rough on Reinsdorf. Mister Comiskey had quite a few detractors. Time will tell with the rebuild, but I have a feeling you’ll like what you see from guys like Eloy/Lopez/Hansen and several others by latter 2018 where they become a rising club in 2019.

2 World Series titles would be above average in JR ownership group tenure by simply looking at the # of teams, but 1 is a big deal. More important than that, only 2 teams from AL made the playoffs for bulk of the time, so you had to be really good just to get in. Look no further than the 1990 WSox that was unlucky to have Oakland in its division. WSox were very good in the 90s thru mid-2000s. They have been utterly frustrating since 2011 no argument, and he’s loyal to a fault with many employees such as KW/Ventura….but looking at body of work calling JR reign brutal isn’t fair nor accurate.

How about being a tad unbiased and including the 11-1 postseason record during WS title run (only matched by Yankees in Wildcard era)? That changes the picture when you don’t cherry pick/weed out the signature moment in past 100yrs of franchise. In JR tenure, there are 9 teams that have won >1 WS title……..3 you probably wouldn’t count in Toronto/Minn/Dodgers since it’s been 24+ years since their last titles. Anyhow, you have 21 out of 30 (70%) baseball fan bases who haven’t experienced or merely equaled the title joys you experienced under his helm………..btw pretty neutral on Reinsdorf. He’s not great, but far from bad. Probably little above average in totality. Glad you are a passionate WSox fan…….could use more, especially if you are early 30s or younger

Cws 2019 what a magnificent year that was. I was there for both home WS games dropped 3rd strike game and a couple others. I will never forget the park when Paulie hit the grand slam. And Scottie pods homer that just kept going and going until it was out of the park. I simply don’t agree with Jery he hires too many friends.